Helen Coonan

Ms Coonan has had an extensive professional career in leadership positions that spans service to the Australian Parliament as Senator for New South Wales from 1996 to 2011, practice of the law in Australia and New York and experience as a company director and adviser in a number of corporate roles. In Parliament, Ms Coonan served as the Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate. She was appointed to Cabinet as the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts and was shareholder Minister for Telstra Corporation and Australia Post. She also served as the Minister for Revenue and Assistant Treasurer and had portfolio oversight of the Australian Taxation Office and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority. She is the recipient of a Centenary Medal for service to the Australian Parliament. Until recently Ms Coonan was the Chair of the Minerals Council of Australia and GRACosway a corporate communications and public affairs company. She is a member of the J.P. Morgan Advisory Council and on a number of advisory boards. Ms Coonan was recently Executive Chairman of Crown Resorts Limited and Crown Foundation. She was the inaugural independent Chair of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, independent Chair of HGL Limited and Supervised Investments Australia Limited. She was a non-executive director of Snowy Hydro Limited for seven years and Chaired the board committee overseeing Red Energy, the retail energy arm of Snowy. Helen was interim Chair at the Sydney Opera House Trust and served as a trustee for 2 terms.